This Wreckage

The hosts discuss the ongoing debt crisis and the importance of questioning their own first principles. They explore tendencies within the US left, the influence of pharmaceutical companies on mental health science, and the historical context of behaviorism. They also analyze human development, perception of wealth, labor market stratification, and the benefits of supporting the show.

We ring in the New Year by answering all the questions posed to us on our Discord! Topics include: the terminal crisis of capitalism, pushing Biden to the left, Brenner's recent NLR article, John Brown, animal testing, ecosocialism, and of course, what is to be dun. For the full episode support the show at patreon.com/theantifada Brenner dust-up: https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii138/articles/dylan-riley-robert-brenner-seven-theses-on-american-politics Closing song: Flower - Filth of their Confines

Old friend Eric-John Russell wanders with us through a variety of topics including critical theory of art and culture, the maturation and end of the Situationist International, and our traditional holiday discussion of antisemitism. After the paywall we talk about Triangle of Sadness and Walter Benjamin's Emergency Brake, and if George Costanza is Jewish. For the full episode support the show at patreon.com/theantifada Check out Cured Quail and the interview in Book Forum Read: Spectacular Logic in Hegel and Debord: Why Everything is as it Seems (Critical Theory and the Critique of Society) Song: Louie Zong - Quail

For the 7th episode of Talkin' Tina, the Antifada side project where we discuss the history and politics of America Latina, we chat with a comrade from Oakland about the uprising that occurred in Cuba on July 11th, 2021, via his interview with an anarchist from the island. The interview can be read in full here: https://www.sm28.org/articles/j11-the-return-of-the-cuban-proletariat/ Support the show at Patreon.com/TheAntifada Check out Tamarack in Oakland Song: Afro Cuban Allstars - Distinto, Diferente

Sean and Varn take a brief intermission from their long-running debt crisis series to check in on the state of the American Left. (Tl;dr it's not looking good.) Where have the forces unleashed by the Bernie wave gone? Why has the social-democratic left become merely an adjunct to the Democratic Party? How come revolutionary organizations have either liquidated themselves into the DSA or remained marginal micro-sects? In what ways might these two coeval paths be overcome and what part might all of us play in this overcoming? This is an extended preview of [the three-hour long conversation]( the three-hour long conversation) which ends on a hopeful note and a call to action. If you're interested in this content, become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada Follow Varn (@skepoet) on: Youtube and podcasts

It's an unhappy 200th birthday for us, we do a postmortem of the little rail strike couldn't. Is the blame on the squad, Brandon, the unions, or the workers themselves? And what comes next for rail workers and class struggle in general? In the second half we propose a few theories of Musk's Twitter takeover: Thiel-pilled fascist Musk, Hannah Arendt high-liberalism Musk, Gordon Gecko-style corporate raider Musk, Henry Ford productivist-futurist Musk (and why ultimately we believe none of it really matters.) Support the show at patreon.com/theantifada to hear it! Song: Annie Lennox - Train in Vain

Sean and Rax King of Low Culture Boil talk about Baz Luhrmann's 2022 masterpiece Elvis and suggest that Baz Luhrmann should in fact be tasked with directing the biopics of every single notable person until he dies from exhaustion. We also read a 1956 NYT review of an Elvis performance, where the reviewer says "teenagers" a lot, and bits of Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me, where Priscilla talks about Elvis' kinks a lot. Check out more great cultural commentary and fun times at www.patreon.com/lowcultureboil

RARE TUESDAY RELEASE DUE TO 'SCABBIN' JOE BIDEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO HAVE CONGRESS PUT THE RAIL WORKERS IN CHAINS National rail strike impending, Sean is joined by Justin Roczniak (@who_shot_jgr) of Well There's Your Problem, your favorite engineering disaster podcast - with slides. If the December 9th deadline for strike action is only the capstone of decades of mismanagement, decline and consolidation of private freight service in the United States, how did things get this way? What conditions are rail workers fighting against? How have so many profits been squeezed out of the industry only to see service degrade? What does it mean for US politics that much of these shifts have been happening through conflict within different sectors of the capitalist class? All this (and a big reveal on Justin's corrupt relationship with Big Hawaiian Roll) in part one of this two part episode. To get access to the second half - including a special Antifada edition of 'Safety Third' and a deposition on Norfolk Nazi Southern's 1990s shit bag scandal - become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada Intro music: Godspeed You Black Emperor - Government Came, edited with testimony from rail emperor E Hunter Harrison at Surface Transportation Board Public Hearing, October 2017

A preview taste of the spicy half of our episode with Brett from Rev Left about the possibility of communist regeneration in China and MAGA Communism in the US with Brett by supporting the show at patreon.com/theantifada. All patrons receive discord access, bonus material, and, if you DM me your mailing address, a signed letterpress Antifada postcard and stickers from collectively-owned union printshop Radix Media! https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-198-vs-w-rev-74931782

"Bunker Brett" of Rev Left Radio comes on the show for the first time in years to debate and discuss the contemporary moment for the left, electoralism, the war in Ukraine, China, an what we can learn from First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania Enver Hoxha. For the second half of the episode support the show at Patreon.com/theantifada! Patrons get all bonus material, access to our Discord, and can DM your address for Antifada stickers and a letterpress postcard from Radix media! Songs: Days N Daze - Instra Mental Days N Daze - I Wanna See It Burn